Last stop...Berlin!

I ended up renting a Smartcar and drove to Berlin from Heidelberg. I was just tired of taking trains and wanted to see some backroads! So I ended driving through Franken (northern Bavaria) and then up north into Saxony and so on past Leipzig on the Autobahn.
Germans I found are a lot easier to drive with because they are aware of the other drivers in the road...letting them merge and moving over to the right to let others pass. More often than not Americans are only thinking of themselves and not at all considerate...probably why I saw one accident (not even bad) the whole time and in America I would have seen a lot more.
As a smartcar can only go so fast, I maxed out at around 150 km/hr...while other cars were going 200+ km/hr. Hopefully the next time I drive on the Autobahn it can be with a larger, faster car. But the car served me well and was cheap...would be about the same cost if I had taken the ICE train to Berlin.  Filling up gas was also interesting in that you pay the pump afterwards...going along with the rest of the honor system they have in Germany.
Once I drove into Berlin, I dropped off the car and took the U-bahn to the Pfefferbett Hostel by Alexanderplatz in East Berlin.  This was the same one I had stayed in during 2009/2010 New Years. I took a shower and went straight to bed since I had a massive headache.
The next day (yesterday) I ended up shopping in Schöneberg area of Berlin (by the zoo). There were some sales so ended up buying a soccer jersey, 2 dresses, shorts, some sneaker/hiking socks (really cheap good ones from the drugstore) and...4 pairs of shoes! I also went to KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens), which is a large department store...largest one in continental Europe at least. The 6th floor I discovered had a massive food court/store of various products from different states in Germany as well as Europe and America. The sausage/meat section was just spectacular...you could get anything really.
I went back to the hostel in the evening and ended up hanging out with an Australian girl who was staying in the same room as me. We ate at a Korean restaurant and chatted for the rest of the night.  She was at the start of her trip, which she hoped would last until September/October.
Right now I am waiting to board the plane back to New York from the Berlin Tegel airport. It has been a really fun month here abroad, but I think I am ready to go back and enjoy the summer.
Sorry that I couldn't put more photos up...but it didn't really work out unless I took photos with my phone and my phone keeps deleting them. I will put up the best ones here hopefully this weekend before I start up work again.

A Multitude of German Cities: Lübeck, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, and Maisbach (aka Heidelberg)

Upon landing back in Germany, I went to Starbucks to wake up and grab some breakfast. I was so glad to be back in a country where most people can speak and understand at least a little English and of course I could understand and sort of speak German. So though Russia was a lot of fun and a cool experience...the not understanding what was going on on top of the sun being always up stressed me out. And maybe it just happened to be when I was most tired anyways.
I left the airport and headed to the Hauptbahnhof where I got on an ICE train towards Hamburg and then took a regional train onto Lübeck (a city 20 min from the sea). There I treated myself to a hotel for the night. This way I knew I would sleep well, be able to repack everything and spread out and eat a very good breakfast.
After taking a much needed nap, I walked around the Altstadt (old city), which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city is small and know for its short distances, but I enjoyed the downtown. Saw some pretty nice pairs of shoes, but opted instead to buy some Marzipan and wait until I went back to Berlin to do some shopping. I ate some vanilla ice cream that was literally freshly made mixed in with fresh strawberries (that are in season...makes it even better). In the evening I read and watched the last show of Germany's Next Top Model that is less drama filled actually plus Lady Gaga performed so that was cool.
In the morning I ate some breakfast, checked out and took the train back to Hamburg where I met up with my friend, Sarah, who I studied abroad with in Freiburg back in Fall 2008. We went to our hostel that was in Altona...so a little west to the downtown area. After we put our stuff down we went back into the city and walked along the harbor. We then went to an are east of the Hauptbahnhof and ate at a nice Italian restaurant and talked until after 11 pm.
Saturday morning we got up and went to a Fleamarket in Sternschanze - a really cool neighborhood in Hamburg. We also did some shopping on Mönckbergstrasse (Sarah got some shoes and I bought a fleece jacket from Bench). For dinner we ate at a place called Oma's Apotheke and then went back to get ready to go out for the night. We decided to go out with 2 girls who were also in our room, they were from Halifax, Nova Scotia and starting their 3rd year of Med School. We all ended up tagging along with a group of British guys who were in Hamburg for a bachelor's weeked as one was getting married. It was definitely interesting watching their antics as well as going out to the Red Light district by Reeperbahn.
Sunday morning we slept in and took it easy since I went to bed around 4 am and Sarah even later than me. In the afternoon we sat by harbor near Landungsbrücken - I read and Sarah took a nap. Then we went at 6 pm to the Modelbahns (model trains), which was amazing! It was really awesome! They had so many different types of scenes and landscapes. Plus they had literally just opend their newest section - an airport! They had program airplanes to land, take off and taxi. There was even a car/bus system where there were buses that came around to all the parked planes to pick up and drop off passengers, fuel trucks that refilled and it goes on. On top of that was a departure and arrival screen so you knew which planes were leaving and arriving...honestly just like a real airport. No wonder it took them 6 years to develop and perfect it.
After spending 3 hours there without realizing it, we grabbed some dinner and went back to the hostel. In the morning I repacked and headed off to the train station while Sarah stayed in Hamburg as she was going to Schwerin later for the week. I meanwhile took regional trains down to Düsseldorf, checked into a hostel and walked around their harbor and downtown. I ate dinner at a Brauerei, which was really good and went back to sleep. It was a good thing I didn't stay out as it started to rain a lot that next.
In the morning I went back to the train station to go to Heidelberg and meet with Sinah, my high school german exchange partner. She lives in a little village about 30 minutes away from Heidelberg. It was nice to see her and catch up as well as to see her family. Finally also have a photo of them as a family since I did not before. I stayed there overnight and in the morning Sinah took me back to Heidelberg.

St. Petersburg

So my post apparently didn't work so have to retype it.
Anyways arrived mid-afternoon at the airport and for the first time in my life was checked to see if I had taken the right baggage.  Got on a bus to the metro where a nice Danish-Russian couple helped me out and got me to the right metro stop. The buses are differently in Russia in that you don't pay the driver (this excludes mini-buses), instead there is a bus conductor that goes around collecting money.
The hostel I stayed at was called Soul Kitchen Hostel and basically had free everything: internet, laundry, breakfast, international calls, linens...so that was good, especially since I needed to do some laundry. I didn't get to meet a lot of people as there was a large group of asians who mostly talked with themselves in Chinese.
So once I checked in I decided to take a walk down Nevsky Prospect towards the Neva River. It ended up taking 30 minutes and in the heat as the sun was still up. Once at the river I bought an ice cream bar and took a 1 hour boat trip around the river. The tour was in Russian since there was no English tours, but it was nice to be on the water and see all the sailboats, jetskiers, hydrofoils and sunbathers.
After the tour I walked by the Winter Palace and the square in front. Then walked back to the hostel while stopping into various souvenir shops. I also went to a grocery store and picked up some food so I could make myself dinner for the next 2 nights (spaghetti napoli basically).  I tried to go to sleep but the sun was still out so I couldn't really until after midnight.
Wednesday morning I slept until 9 am and was at the Hermitage by 10:30 am (everything opens later in Russia since people stay up later).  It is a huge art musuem with some rooms set up like it used to be in the Winter Palace. So after about 2 hours walking through various sections I decided to leave and go to Peterhof, the summer palace.
I took one of the metros basically to the end of the line and got on a minibus...which would be similar to a russian version of the shuttles/vans you find in Africa. I got to Peterhof ok and paid to go see all the gardens by the water, which were really nice. And there was a little beach so I walked around there for awhile. Didn't go into any of the palaces or musuems as the lines were long and the weather nice anyways.
Around 5 pm I decided to head back (though it only looked like 2/3 pm). I went and did some last minute shopping, made dinner and booked a cab for the morning.  I couldn't really sleep well that night, had cat naps until I got up at 4:15 am to go to the airport. When I did go there it was fairly light out again as the sun didn't really set. But I was able to have a good nap on the plane ride to Berlin and then we landed by 8 am Berlin time.
I did have some photos from my phone...but it seems like my phone deleted them...oops!

Moscow, Russia

4:30 pm Liza and I arrived in Russia and met up with her dad who took us to the hotel we would be staying in. People do not really speak English there...so I was glad to be with Liza, especially in Moscow. We took a 45 minute train into the city and another 30 minute subway ride and a 15 minute walk, basically Moscow is huge. There are wide boulevards, their subway system is very extensive (especially since it only costs roughly 1 USD to ride). Our hotel was located in probably what is an up and coming type of neighborhood since it was in a old chocolate factory and a lot of clubs and restaurants were also located there. It was hard to find, but we found it after a little bit of confusion.

Liza and I then dropped off our stuff in the room, which was litterally a double bed, dresser with a tv on top and then a private bathroom off to the left. Very tiny so we couldn't really spread out our stuff...though a lot of mine ended up at the foot of the bed since there was some space between there and the wall. But it suited our purposes for sleeping so that worked out. We went to dinner, which her dad treated me to as well! It was Ukrainian restuarant and all the staff had to dress up in "traditional" garb. I enjoyed the food, had some red berry drink (I forget the name...you can get it at IKEA), beet soup and meat dumplings. Definitely full after that.

As Moscow is 2 hours ahead of Western Europe, even though the time said it was later, it still felt earlier. Russia is fairly up there in the latitudes and it didn't really get to be twilight until after 11 pm and then would get light again early in the morning...this threw me off majorly so and I didn't really sleep well the entire week in Russia unfortunately. Plus both places I stayed in were really hot and stuffy.

Anyways, I still had a good time!! Sunday morning Liza and I took the subway to the end of the one of the northern lines where her grandfather lived. It used to be that he lived in a cottage where his apartment complex stands and there was just ponds and trees everywhere...wasn't even a part of Moscow. Eventually the city reached it and they torn down his cottage and put him in an apartment. Now there are talks to redo the apartment complex, but he really doesn't want to have to deal with moving everything again. He was a very nice grandfather I would say, though I couldn't not understand him as he only spoke Russian! They let me use his computer so that I could book a hostel in St. Petersburg and check my e-mail. Then he made me oatmeal, yum!

Liza's dad, Liza and I went back into Moscow and walked around the area of the Red Square and St. Basil's Church. Took an obligatory photo of me throwing a coin over my shoulder at the center of this compass type thing in the ground and made a wish. These little old ladies come around right after you throw the coin and take them...so who knows how effective the wishes are, as said by Liza. We went on a boat down the river Moscow to a large park where once you walk up the hill offers a very nice view of the whole city. You can begin to see the area where they are building skyscrapers, called Moscow City, so probably will be the financial area of the city. Other than the ocassional "Stalin" building (this huge grand buildings that are fairly high and have a star on the top built under Stalin), the rest of the city is fairly low in height. There aren't many "old" buildings compared to Western European cities because (I was told) Moscow was burned down and a bunch of buildings were torn down and rebuilt. The city was built into circles with walls around, though really the only wall left is the Kremlin...the oldest part of the city with really only the churches left.

So after taking in the view, we walked back down to the subway and Liza and I went onto this pedestrian street that had a lot of shopping and souvenir shops and restaurants. We went to a Georgian restaurant, where it was decorated inside like a little village, which I thought very cute. We had some shiskabobs and bread, which was really good and of course had some vodka too...because when one is in Russia they must have some vodka. It was pretty terrible though since it was the cheapest on the menu...no more cheap vodka, blah. Went to a bar afterwards, which overlooked the river and so we could start to see twilight, though the sun took a very long time setting. Had this rose-flavored cocktail drink, which was very good...need to find it in the states.

Tuesday morning we got up and walked to the Kremlin to grab some breakfast, Liza a baked potato and me a crepe/pancake. We both had large glasses of orange juice that were really good! Then we went insid e the Kremlin and walked around and looked at all the churches, which were completely different than western churches so that was really cool. Unfortunately, there was rarely a sign in English (you could overhear some German or English tours), so I couldn't really read anything. When I get back I will just have to read up on all the places I went to so that I can better understand what I saw.

Then we walked back to the hotel, where I ended up staying and taking a much needed nap and chill time. Watched some tv and read too. Liza went out to meet up with her dad for the afternoon and get some sun by laying down in a park. Then she met up with me again so that we could go see a ballet in the Kremlin, which was a lot of fun. The ballet was Don Quixote...and as far as we could tell about a couple who wanted to marry, but the guy didn't have enough money. There was this older man and his sidekick that was all for the marriage though and eventually convinced the father of the girl that she should marry the younger poorer lover and not the older richer man he was trying to make her marry. We ended the night of course at the same bar on the river and had some tapas too.

Wednesday morning I packed up my things and Liza took me to the subway station to where I could get my train to the airport....a different one from the one I flew into. So I got to the airport fine and ate some breakfast and took a flight onto St. Petersburg while Liza stayed in Moscow another 2 days to spend more time with her grandfather.

At the moment I am in Duesseldorf, Germany...the past weekend I was in Hamburg with my friend Sarah Moser who I studied abroad in Freiburg with. Today I will be going down to Heidelberg to meet up with my high school exchange partner, Sinah, and her family and I will end the trip in Berlin to go to some museums/zoo/aquarium (still deciding) and some shopping! Then fly back to the States on Friday.

Jungfrauhoch

Thursday we took a train up into the Swiss Alps from Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen where we then switched to a bus. We were dropped off in Stechelberg and took a gondola straight up (it was fairly steep I might add). Yvonne and Liza stayed behind where the first gondola took us - Gimmelwald.  Cleo, the girl we met (Gigi), and I took 3 more gondolas up to the top of Schilthorn where they filmed the James Bond movie (Her Majesty's Secret or something like that.
Finally we got up to the top at 11/11:30 am after having left Interlaken at 9 am. It was beautiful up top and though there were some clouds they were mostly in the valleys leaving us a fairly good view of the famous three mountains of Jungfrauhoch - Jungfrau, Eiker and Monich (sp?).  We spent over an hour at the top just walking around and taking photos. We did do a pit stop at their revolving restaurant for some expressos and hot cocoa.
At 12:30 pm we headed back down to Gimmelwald to meet back up with Yvonne and Liza...though there was some confusion so we ended up meeting in Lauterbrunnen after having lunch our separate ways.  Cleo, Gigi and I ate at a very nice place in Gimmelwald with a spectacular view of the Alps.  We then took the gondola down and went to Lauterbrunnen and on back to Interlaken.
Since we were at the train station we purchased our tickets for Basel and went back to our hostel by way of Unterseen (same town directly next to Interlaken...where we were technically staying).
Friday morning we gathered our stuff, ate breakfast and took the 10:30 train to Basel. I had booked a hotel room just across the border in Saint Louis, France so we took a streetcar to the end of the line and walked across the border from Switzerland to France. The room was a really nice one for the last night the 4 of us were together.
After putting our stuff down, we hopped back on the streetcar and explored the old part of Basel. Turns out it is a really nice city and it is a pity I never really went while I was abroad in Freiburg...I feel like I was told it was not much and obviously that opinion is wrong.
I accidentally took the Interlaken hostel's room key so I mailed it back and then did some shopping at Vera Mode - a store I have only seen in Europe and where I got my favorite yellow flats with the buckle (for those who have complimented them).
Saturday morning we got up early and took a taxi to the airport to catch a flight to Berlin.  There we parted ways - Cleo and Yvonne went into the city and would shortly go back to America, and Liza and I waited 4 more hours for our flight to Moscow, Russia!

Cloudy in Interlaken

Unfortunately our time in Interlaken consisted of cloudy weather so we were unable to see any mountains from the town (which lies at the foot of the Jungfrauhoch region between two glacial lakes). Nevertheless we did enjoy our time there. We shared a room with a girl from Dallas who was quite nice and she joined us on that Wednesday and Thursday as she had been traveling alone (midway through her 70 day vacation in Europe I might add).
Wednesday morning we decided to visit some local caves along Thunersee called St. Beatushölen. Located in a large hill there was a river running through the entire set of caves, which were not that high or wide, but fairly long. To be honest it was not particular impressive (especially comparing them to some caves in Luray, VA), but it was interesting to note that people were living in them. Also that the Saint Beatus was said to have defeated an evil dragon that lived there and afterwards took up residence in the caves themselves (they even had a model dragon to help tell this particular story).
After looking at the caves and going through the Hölenmuseen, which was cool because they talked about the groundwater and geology of the area...plus they had information on cave rescuing teams and how they did that.
Well my flight is getting ready to board in St. Petersburg so I better get going. My hostel there has free wifi so I can play catch up later today.

Hiking in the Black Forest

Sunday morning we slept in, but eventually got up and caught a train to Himmelreich (20 minute ride from the main train station). From there we started our 12 km hike up Höllental (hell's valley) and past Hirschsprung towards Hinterzarten. I thought it a nice hike though a bit too close to the highway for some of it so you could here all the cars and motorbikes rushing by.

About 4 km in we stopped for a bite to eat and I discovered that I had 10 to 15 ticks crawling all over my legs and some on my arms. The scene after that involved some frantic scurrying around to take off all the ticks and making sure they were not all in our clothes. As I wore shorts I was able to get all the ticks off my legs fairly easily (they were really tiny and looked like they had just got on me recently). I did have a few underneath my shirt but was able to them as well. Liza found a handful in her shoes and Yvonne and Cleo a few each, but nothing major.

The rest of the hike was uneventful and by the time we reached Hinterzarten we were all farely tired and stopped off for some ice cream. We took the train back down the valley towards Freiburg and discovered that a 20 minute train ride down = our 5 hour hike up, definitely made us appreciate the train system.

For dinner we ate at Weinstube Sichelschmeide (a restaurant I had eaten with my mom and sister back when I had studied abroad). It was really good food and we all were able to eat Spätzle (Schwabian pasta) and for dessert we got some Rote Grüze (red jelly with creme is the best I can describe it). That night we all slept well.

On Monday morning we had brunch at Cafe Aspekt by the university and enjoyed the hot sun and warm weather in the 80s. I took them to Vauban, a neighborhood known for their green energy houses and hippies. Then we rode the Strassenbahn (streetcar) back into town and walked around a bit stopping off for some beer mid-afternoon. We all ended up taking a nap that afternoon and afterwards went back to Schlappen where I basically ate an entire Flammkuchen by myself. So good...I will have to learn how to make it at home myself.

Tuesday morning we packed up everything and left on a 1 pm train to Interlaken, Switzerland. Originally we were suppoe to leave at 11 am, but unfortunately Yvonne was not feeling well so we wanted to make sure she was ok. (She is fine now). We arrived in Interlaken in the rain and found our hostel - the Lazy Falken. That night Cleo, Liza and I ate at a local restaurant called the Goldener Anker and played Yatzee.

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Reliving Study Abroad in Freiburg

Saturday late morning we arrive in Basel, Switzerland and wait for the next bus to Freiburg. Once at the Hauptbahnhof (main train station) we walked to the Black Forest Hostel by the Schwabentor and checked into our room. The hostel is really cool and everyone nice. The only downside is the lack of free wifi and only 2 computers that you have to pay for.

After settling in I took Cleo, Yvonne, and Liza on a mini tour of Freiburg - Münsterplatz, Bertoldsbrunnen, Martinstor, Rathausplatz - and showed them the cobblestones, Bächle and anything else that I could remember. We were able to catch the tail end of the market and ate some Bockwurst and really fresh strawberries.

Liza went back to nap for a bit, but the rest of us walked around awhile more to do some shopping. We found a really awesome jewelry shop that sold all kinds of specific minerals and semiprecious stones. I bought two rings - one of a snail's shell and another of Opal. They also had things like coral, unakite, malachite and lava! We stopped off at an Eiscafe and ate Spaghettieis! So good! I had a neopolitan style one with vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry all in the shape of spaghetti.

Eventually we headed back to the hostel, showered and got ready to go out. I took them to my cavorts place ever - Schlappen - to eat frittierte kartoffeln and flammekuchen. Afterwards we went to Shooters and got some shots like Van Goth and American Pie. This place is cool because they have an entire wall of just various names including Porsche Maria Barcelona and Sexy...though it goes on and basically each name is a different type of shot that you would not necessarily know the ingredients of. We ended the night at an diskothek called Agar that my study abroad friends and I went to. Around 1:30 am we headed back and immediately passed out.

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Some photos from Dubrovnik

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